Now Averaging the Fewest Points Allowed Per Game

Seriously... aside from a few outliers (the Pistons who had a bad offense, and one of those Kobe/Shaq Lakers teams who had a bad defense, I forget which one), ya gotta have a top 10 offense and defense to contend. Kinda robbing Peter to pay Paul so far.

I think we have the firepower here though. Just gotta figure it out.

 

The good part about being a more defensive team this year is that, even if our differential is the same, I feel like our variance will go down just because we aren't counting on our offense to score 105+ every night. Offense comes and goes, but you can always maintain a strong defensive intensity. It's just a matter of willpower.

 

Slowing down the pace also means fewer possession for yourself, which means you have fewer opportunities to score. The goal of the game is to score more than your opponent.

Pace is not directly related to better offense or defense. It's just about style. Points per possession, on both ends, determine how good you are.

The Rockets are #3 at DRtg (ppp allowed) behind Golden State and San Antonio.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2015_ratings.html

That said. Top 3 is elite.

 

Actually a great point. I had not thought of it that way. But defense shows up every single game. Some nights the offense does fail to show.

I do believe that variance on defense is tightly correlated to the quality of team one is facing. That is probably statistically predictable, with few outliers.

Offense on the other hand seems more loosely correlated to the opponents defense. It can go off for 108 points against the SAS, and score 82 the next night against Philadelphia. I guess that makes sense. Shooting by nature is streaky.

I actually am going to have to think about this subject more. You may have uncovered something here Spacemoth.

 

IMO, In the playoffs slower pace on defense which makes the opp work harder ever offensive possession and being to stop the opponent from scoring is directly related to success

 

The Rockets aren't actually that slow in pace. It was at the very beginning. But since then it's gone up. You're seeing more fast breaks. Perhaps that's an opponent thing, perhaps it's due to being more familiar with our defense. Regardless, we're not running up and down the court, but we're not prodding along like the JVG days either.

The one discerning difference between this year and last year is that a slower pace makes Harden and Howard more important. Harden’s 25 and Howard’s 20 are more important when the score is in the 90s instead of 110s. Howard’s defense is also more impactful with less running and fast breaks on both ends of the court. Overall, the more defensive oriented team makes use of Harden’s skills more than previously. Which is partially why he looks like a better player. He's a bigger part of the game.

 

The run and gun bs offense was finally canned.

 

No. Injuries galore. Expect it back as soon as the injured starters return. Few teams are as young as the Rockets. When you are young you run and run and run. Wear those old ******* out.

 

My comment wrt the pace thing is that, generally, I'd rather the team play great defense and win at a slower pace than a faster one. Historically the former leads to more championships and playoff success. The caveat there is that the NBA is a changing beast all the time. Who knows what will work going forward.

All of which is meaningless because the sample size is too small and the rockets are missing so many guys and the playoffs are so so different anyway. And because there so so so manybdamn good teams in the west. The start we've had and a few losses and were down to the 7th seed. It's crazy.

 

We will still run but I don't think you'll see nearly as much leaking out from this group.

 

According to ESPN standings we are currently the fourth seed.

 

Again, pace goes both ways. It also makes yourself work harder to score on the other end.

I do agree that slower pace usually means less fast break and fast break is one of the most efficient ways to score. So being able to limit the opponent's fast break usually means lower PPP.

On the flip side, creating turnover increases the pace. But everybody knows creating turnover means good defense.

 

better defense (slower pace) = less possessions

 

Actually, we are now right at the league average when it comes to the age of the team. Look it up. It surprised me as well.

 

Really? That is a shock. I don't need to look it up. Your word is good enough for me.

 

The issue isn't the run and gun offense being bs. If you create a stop or turnover/missed shot it's good offense to run and gun.

The problem was Lin and Parsons to be completely honest. They'd just straight up leave their man and leak heavily on the break alongside Harden. Jones was terrible (in the past, not sure how he will be this year) at boxing out his man if the PF had any decent amount of size. So that left Dwight/Asik trying to rebound against anywhere from 2-4 guys.

This resulted in a lot of cheap baskets for the opposing team because all of their players would crash the glass. This year it's different because Ariza hits the boards hard every possession. As does Papa. In addition having D-Mo/Black/Dorsey as big strong bodies boxing people out helps as well.

Now our center is not left on an island with half the team leaking out. I think that's been a major difference this year. Even Harden is looking to rebound and actively chases the ball. The entire team culture is just different. We gang rebound. We also create a lot of turnovers by using effective double teams.

These types of "winning plays" parlay into a heavy amount of transition opportunities. If they can get easy transition buckets still though, that would be great. I'm very thankful players like Lin and (although I really liked watching him here) Parsons are gone.

The current group just has a nose for the ball that you cannot simply teach.